Newly installed 60 Minutes executive producer Nick Bilton is getting some harsh feedback from former employees who worked with him.
Last week, CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss tapped Bilton, who has no experience in broadcast news, for the role. His hiring kicked off a tumultuous week for the program, with top talent being fired and former network icons voicing their concerns about the direction of the program.
Now, people who have actually worked with Bilton, a former tech columnist turned documentary producer, are speaking out.
Bilton, who has no TV production experience, will now head one of the longest-running news programs in the U.S. / Joshua Blanchard / REUTERS
“Nick is an entertaining writer,” one Hollywood executive who worked with him told NBC News. “There’s no doubt that he’s smart. But to run ‘60 Minutes,’ you have to manage people. You have to understand what good TV is, what an interesting visual presentation is.”
“Who could have thought this is a good idea?” the executive added.
Another former colleague of Bilton’s said his hiring was “a head-scratcher for me.”
One person who worked with him on documentaries told NBC News that he was “really good and energetic,” but when asked if he was qualified for the role, they said, “Lord, no!”
Some former colleagues did have positive things to say, though. Evelyn Rusli, who worked with Bilton at The New York Times, described him as “an earnest, serious journalist.”
“Do I think Nick is an unconventional choice? Yes,” Lawrence Ingrassia, an editor at the Times during Bilton’s time there, “Do I think this might end up being an inspired choice? Also, yes.”
Representatives for CBS News did not immediately respond to the Daily Beast’s request for comment.
Pelley was fired by Bilton less than a week after Bilton was hired. Pelley spent nearly four decades at CBS News. / CBS Photo Archive / CBS via Getty Images
Iconic 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley, 68, was fired just hours after voicing concerns about the direction of the storied program under Bilton, 49, and Weiss, 42.
Since his firing, Pelley has said Weiss pushed him to include “falsehoods and bias” in his reporting, and called her behavior “cold and callous and beneath the dignity of CBS News.”
Pelley also accused CBS News of attempting to “curry favor with the Trump administration,” especially as its owner, Trump-friendly billionaire David Ellison, seeks regulatory approval for an $81 billion acquisition of Warner Bros.
Weiss’s time leading the 99-year-old network has been riddled with controversy. / Mike Blake/Reuters
Weiss’ leadership at 60 Minutes has faced severe pushback from longtime producers, many of whom have quit or been forced out.
Her last-minute decision to shelve a 60 Minutes segment on the conditions at CECOT, the infamous El Salvadoran mega-prison where the Trump administration sent deportees, made staff particularly irate.
Before Pelley was fired by Bilton “for cause,” Weiss fired correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi, who clashed with Weiss over the shelved CECOT segment, and correspondent Cecilia Vega.
Longtime correspondent Anderson Cooper also left on his own accord earlier this year.
Four of the seven current correspondents will be gone by next season. / CBS News
Just three of the seven correspondents from the last season of 60 Minutes remain: Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker, and Jon Wertheim.
In a letter to staff, they wrote that they were working to “build trust” with Bilton and to “try to repair and preserve” the reputation of the storied program.
“If we can continue doing the work that made this show what it is — committing acts of independent, fearless journalism and storytelling — we’re here for it,” they wrote. “If not, we leave.”
